GoboLinux is a distribution which sports a different file system structure than 'ordinary' Linux distributions. In order to remain compatible with the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard, symbolic links are used to map the GoboLinux tree to standard UNIX directories. A post in the GoboLinux forums suggested that it might be better to turn the concept around: retain the FHS, and then use symbolic links to map the GoboLinux tree on top of it. This sparked some interesting discussion. Read on for more details.

I can't believe that nobody has brought up what a class unix-haters like complaint this is. If you follow class unix-as-a-virus logic, then of course, trying to change things will never work, because "worse is better". What's done now may not be great, but it kind of works, and it's a "standard", so it must be better. People here have been bringing up the cost of changing things, and that's the really insidious part of the whole equation, now that there's this whole linux and free software ecosystem, as long as the cost to change to something better is more than zero, there's no point. I think the real problem with GoboLinux is that it isn't being more ambitious. The only way you could possibly make something better than linux that could succeed would be to start from scratch, build it from the ground up to answer every problem anyone has ever had with any OS, fix them all and release that. Just modifying the file storage structure, and trying to link to all the old stuff to keep it compatible, that just makes it easier to write off. If it can't completely blow linux away, then there's no incentive to switch. And to make a change that seems so cosmetic, even if it isn't, nah, that won't work. But I do applaud the GoboLinux folks for trying to do the right thing instead of the easy thing. Now if they could collect the right fixes from everyone else, create a nice super-os, then they'd have something.